Tue, Jul 22, 2008 page8

• [LETTERS]

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  Impress with democracy

  Already the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is forgetting just what Taiwan stands for and offers the world. “The mainlanders will be our guests,” Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said.

  “I hope we can work together to impress them with the Taiwanese people’s good nature, politeness, passion and hospitality,” he said.

  What about impressing Chinese tourists with democracy, freedom of the press, of religion, of association, of the Internet, to demonstrate, to travel, to criticize the government, the right to privacy and the guarantee of due process of law and a host of other concepts that the tourists may not know even exist?

  What about impressing Chinese tourists with the real story about how China is, not how China presents itself to its people through propaganda, restricted access to the Internet and tyranny?

  Giving Chinese a good impression of Taiwan is certainly a good strategy. But for oppressed people, just being able to see these things in the newspapers and on TV will open their eyes.

  But if the premier has trouble speaking up about the essence of freedom in Taiwan, how can the Chinese judge us? I suspect the government’s plan is to shield Chinese tourists from such things.

  Such as no Internet at hotels where Chinese tourists stay because they might find out that the Internet is free and you can type any word and get results. TV will likely be restricted too, with stations critical of China or Taiwan’s government being blocked.

  Lee Long-hwa

  New York

  Good, bad or ugly?

  I would also like to add a positive comment to Chaim Melamed’s letter about his incident with customs officers (Letters, July 16, page 8).

  I’m a UK citizen, my wife is Taiwanese and my daughter has triple nationality: UK, Taiwan and South Africa, because she was born there, lucky girl. On a Saturday morning two years ago we were checking in at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport prior to our 9am departure to the UK when we were informed that my daughter’s Republic of China passport had expired three days earlier, and that we would have to reapply for a new passport when the relevant office opened on Monday morning, and even with express action it would take at least one week to process.

  Therefore imagine our surprise as we were putting our luggage into a taxi when a lady from the immigration department called us to say that she would process the new passport and we would receive it at 5pm. I immediately went to the airline desk and rebooked on their 8pm flight. After sitting in the airport all day we duly received the passport as promised and left for our summer holidays.

  I respectfully remind everyone that this was a Saturday morning!

  Upon returning to Taiwan I wrote a letter of thanks and recommendation for this immigration officer to the relevant department, who responded with a very positive reply, stating that the officer had received a commendation and a promotion.

  Good things do happen in Taiwan.

  Michael Wise

  Taipei

  In response to Vassilis Tso (Letters, July 17, page 8), both my child’s passports (Canadian and Taiwanese) were presented to immigration. Having traveled through a good part of the world, this was the first time that I ever witnessed a valid Canadian passport not being accepted as proof of citizenship. It is not a case of our misunderstanding procedures but of a willful and arbitrary judgment by an arrogant lackey.

  The officer’s opinion that my son is not Canadian was ludicrous and grotesque. The Canadian government considers my son to be a Canadian citizen and gave him a passport and citizenship card. Is this insufficient?

  Chaim Melamed

  Pingtung
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